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Docs: Flanagan Had Previously Threatened Suicide

SPARKS, Md. (AP) -- Records show former Baltimore Orioles pitcher Mike Flanagan threatened to kill himself several times before committing suicide last month.

Flanagan, who won the Cy Young award in 1979 and was a member of the Orioles' 1983 world championship team, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound outside his Baltimore County home.

Records obtained by The Baltimore Sun reveal that Flanagan had previously threatened to shoot himself, and had walked outside with a gun several times but that his wife, Alex, discouraged him from suicide each time.

Alex Flanagan told detectives that the couple was upset that he had been working without a contract for a year and a half as a commentator with the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network. The Orioles' communications director says Flanagan had a contract and was being paid.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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